Dayton Moore has pushed all his chips in and is riding on King/Jack suited, hoping it comes together, he gets some good luck, and he hits the nuts by the river card. There's potential, oh yes, there's potential. There's also risk.

At the midway point, Dayton is left counting on the river card. The flop and turn didn't help him, and he's looking at the Tigers holding a pair of Queens and the Indians holding a pair of 9s. His 2013 plan hasn't failed - yet - but the odds are not in his favor.

Burning questions updates below.

Burning Questions for 2013:

1) Will the improve rotation be improved enough? Does James Shields pitch like a fringe No. 1 away from Tampa Bay? Does Ervin Santana pitch to his highest upside in his walk year? Can Jeremy Guthrie build on his strong performance as a Royal in 2012? Can Wade Davis bring his new mentality- and velocity - back to the rotation?

Midseason check-in: Yes, the rotation is certainly improved enough. Shields has pitched like a fringe No. 1 and Santana is having his best season. Guthrie has horrible peripherals but has continued to perform well at his home park and eat innings on the road. Davis brought neither his kick-ass mentality or improved velocity back to the rotation and is in Luke Hochevar/Hiram Davies territory.

2) When will Luke Hochevar be shown the door?Midseason check-in: It appears, never, at this point. Hochevar has been solid in non-leverage situations, though pretty much every time he has been used with men on base in an inning, it has been a disaster.

3) Does Hosmer bounce back?Midseason check-in: It took some time, but Hosmer's performance from June 1 on is probably the most encouraging thing about the 2013 season so far.
4) Can Moustakas hit for a whole season like he did in the first half of 2012?Midseason check-in: Nope. Moustakas was god-awful, then great for about 3 weeks, then god-awful again. He has been better since he started working with Brett and Grafol but still has a long way to go.
5) Who regresses? Midseason check-in: Welp, Alicides Escobar is not a surprising name here (though Yost's stubborn insistence on hitting him second is ridiculous). Billy Butler is a surprise. He isn't having a terrible year - still contributing a lot to the offense - but he's not hitting for the average or power he has displayed over the past several years.
6) Who plays 2B?Midseason check-in: A whole bunch of people, and not that great. Gio is at least getting a shot, though he once again is not doing much with it.
7) Can Jeff Francoeur be at least replacement level, rather than epic horrible level?Midseason check-in: Hahahahahahahahahahaha
8) Will Dayton Moore survive to see 2014?Midseason check-in: Outlook uncertain. Probably still around, unless the team completely tanks in the second half and he does something foolish. My guess - he sacrifices Ned Yost this offseason and gets one more shot with a new manager in 2014.
9) Will Danny Duffy come back healthy? And if he does, is he the same, better or worse?Midseason check-in: Yes. Velocity looks the same, and it looks likely he is the same guy as before.
10) And the big one: Has KC added enough to run down the big-money Detroit Tigers?Midseason check-in: Doesn't look like it, does it?

So, based on Dutton's article there are about 6 players who are newly rule v eligible that we might care about protecting, and we have to decide who to protect by Wednesday. (not protecting doesn't mean you'll lose someone of course, if you don't think someone will get drafted, then there's no point in protecting them) His article says we only have 2 spots, but there's some dead wood we can hack off.

We can cut Arguelles. If no one else wants him, he can stay in our system but off our 40-man roster. We can cut Getz. Brett Hayes spot will probably be taken by Pena. So, that is up to 4 possible spots available.

Even though pitchers are far more likely to be drafted, I wouldn't bother protecting Mariot. I don't think anyone is going to put him on their active roster for a full year, and if they do then who cares.

I'd first protect Cuthbert, he's only 20 and is still seen as a true prospect. After that, I guess I'd probably put Colon on the 40-man. I don't want to lose one of the outfielders, but I think Colon is more likely to get drafted by some team who thinks they can turn him around.

If we have a 3rd and/or 4th spot, then add whichever outfielders we like best, we shouldn't need to protect all of them.

__________________
<ptp> how many emo kids does it take to change a lightbulb?
<Willy> HOW MANY?!
<ptp> none they just sit in the dark and cry

The 24-year-old Pena, the son of former Royals manager Tony Pena, has spent the past six years in the New York Mets organization. He hit .257 last season for Triple-A Las Vegas with nine homers and 39 RBIs. He committed just three errors and threw out 30 percent of stolen-base attempts.

Pena was also a member of the champion Dominican Republic squad in this past year's World Baseball Classic, where he was 1 for 2 with an RBI in two tournament games.

In other news, the Ruben Tejada case could get interesting. He is probably going to file a grievance against the Mets, and I think he should probably win. Or at least, the Mets should lose for being stupid.

In baseball 172 days = 1 year of MLB service time. Ruben Tejada missed getting his 3rd year by 1 day. Normally its no big deal because when you draw a line, then someone's got to be on the wrong side of the line and also its sort of unofficially accepted that you can play games with service time to get another year from a prospect because you can always claim that he wasn't ready yet and needed more time in the minors and gee, what do ya know, 10 days after he missed his year, now we think he's ready, etc. Many teams do that, including the Royals.

However, no one clearly and blatantly keeps a player from getting a year as much as the Mets did with Ruben Tejada. In late October, the Mets said as soon as the minor league playoffs were done, they'd probably call up Tejada. Playoffs end, and a ton of players get called up but not Tejada. Someone apparently looked up his service time and looked up a calendar because after most of his teammates were called up, 3 days after his AAA team was done playing, the Mets finally called him up at the exact time needed to make sure he'd fall 1 day short of getting his 3rd year.

There is no rational explanation or excuse for it except the obvious one. It'll be interesting to see what happens. He'll probably be awarded an extra day of service time by the arbitrator, and start out next season at 3 years.

__________________
<ptp> how many emo kids does it take to change a lightbulb?
<Willy> HOW MANY?!
<ptp> none they just sit in the dark and cry

In other news, the Ruben Tejada case could get interesting. He is probably going to file a grievance against the Mets, and I think he should probably win. Or at least, the Mets should lose for being stupid.

In baseball 172 days = 1 year of MLB service time. Ruben Tejada missed getting his 3rd year by 1 day. Normally its no big deal because when you draw a line, then someone's got to be on the wrong side of the line and also its sort of unofficially accepted that you can play games with service time to get another year from a prospect because you can always claim that he wasn't ready yet and needed more time in the minors and gee, what do ya know, 10 days after he missed his year, now we think he's ready, etc. Many teams do that, including the Royals.

However, no one clearly and blatantly keeps a player from getting a year as much as the Mets did with Ruben Tejada. In late October, the Mets said as soon as the minor league playoffs were done, they'd probably call up Tejada. Playoffs end, and a ton of players get called up but not Tejada. Someone apparently looked up his service time and looked up a calendar because after most of his teammates were called up, 3 days after his AAA team was done playing, the Mets finally called him up at the exact time needed to make sure he'd fall 1 day short of getting his 3rd year.

There is no rational explanation or excuse for it except the obvious one. It'll be interesting to see what happens. He'll probably be awarded an extra day of service time by the arbitrator, and start out next season at 3 years.

And the Mets should file a grievance against him for being a crappy player. Perhaps they didn't want to promote him because of the fact that he probably sucks?